dawns and skullbones
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [Pt] The Distortion World tosses her into a graveyard. That's actually more telling than she realises, at first.
1. 1

**A/N:** Written for:

The Drabblechap Competition (4-9k)  
Mega-Prompts Challenge, dialogue prompt #18 – "You make it sound like a bad thing."

* * *

 **dawns and skullbones**  
1.

The Distortion World tosses her into a graveyard. There's got to be something poetic about that.

It's not like the creepy Pokemon Tower in Kanto, at least. It's not a place where partner pokemon are buried but rather where the wild come to settle into their eternal tomb – or so the legends go. They're not even very well-known legends: not like the space-time legend, anyway.

Though, by this point, she probably knows the space-time legend better than anyone in the world… except Cynthia and Cyrus and who knows where they've gone. Giratina sits in a pokemon around her belt and only her Glaceon has any strength left to battle with. Infernape does, in theory, because one cannot activate Blaze without a sliver of strength, but it'll only take the ghostly winds to knock him down. And half his moves are ineffective against ghosts anyway.

They don't attack, though. Maybe they don't mind her accidental intrusion all that much. It's nice of them, if they don't, because she didn't choose the spot.

She's not a researcher either, like Lucas, so she doesn't plan to linger. But it's nice to know she hasn't been attacked before she could get her head on straight –

Her head spins. A head rush maybe; she's stood up too fast and she winds up falling back onto her knees in the soft grass and throwing up. Adjusting to gravity, maybe. Like divers coming out of those pressure chambers. It's an icky feeling, whatever it is. An icky look too, that puddle of brown and green on the grass.

The hum of ghosts around her don't change. She wonders if that means spirits don't have noses. Then she wonders why she cares whether they do or not. She's not flighty in nature, but her thought streams feel a little messy. Good thing she doesn't have a psychic pokemon, she thinks. They'd pick up on her scrambled thoughts all too easy.

As it is, Glaceon's ball rattles, and she's glad the ice fox doesn't just jump out. The spirits might be mere feelings now but she doubts they'll take kindly to a hostile pokemon, and she can just imagine Glaceon, hackles raised, searching for whatever made her trainer sick.

It's probably the distortion world – or rather, coming back from it. Her legs are a little shaky too, she realises. Maybe she shouldn't have tried to stand up right then. Maybe the graveyard distracted her: the invisible tombstones and the hum of spirits in the air and the jingle of wind-chimes –

She shakes her head. Wind chimes? But she still hears them, louder and louder.

Ah, a chimecho. She smiles as it circles above her head, and then leads her. She follows slowly, strength seeping into her bones. And then the grass is gone and there's the ground slipping down into a lake… or a spring.

Sendoff Springs. And there, on its shore at the mouth of a cave disappearing into the rock, is Cynthia.


	2. 2

**dawns and skullbones**  
2.

Cynthia doesn't seem to be looking in her direction, and there's some sort of common etiquette that says not to shout across bodies of water in a graveyard.

If Lumineon wasn't down for the count, she'd call her out instead. Does Heal Bell heal fainted pokemon? It doesn't seem to; the red light doesn't come on. She pours through her bag for revives instead and finds only herbs.

She grimaces, but desperate times call for desperate measures and she offers the spluttering Lumineon oran berries to eradicate the taste. 'Sorry sweetie,' she cooes at him. 'But I need your help to swim across this spring.'

It's probably not a good idea anyway, but hell if she's going to send Luminion alone to fetch Cynthia instead. No-one's ever said the Sendoff Springs will whisk away humans as well as pokemon. She's not thrilled to try herself, but going in a pair means they'll anchor each other, right?

Maybe it is safer to just scream, except her voice is barely a whisper when she tries and it's suddenly much too cold. The spirits are stopping her tongue. They won't let her call. Maybe they're stopping Cynthia's head, too, from turning towards the shore.

It doesn't matter anyway, if she's found herself in this mysterious fourth lake of Sinnoh.

So they swim: she and Luminion. And Cynthia does turn when she rakes at the bank and tries to pull herself over. 'Don't,' she cautions.

Dawn clings to Lumineon instead.

Cynthia crouches down, silhouetted by the dark of the cave. 'Turnback Cave,' she says. 'And Sendoff Springs. We have found ourselves in an interesting place, don't you think?'

'Interesting, yes,' Dawn replies. 'But maybe not the sort of place we should linger in.'

Cynthia laughs: soft and sweet. 'No,' she agrees. 'Still, Turnback Cave unites two worlds. If you cross the spring, you have to traverse its inner rooms and find the way back out. Or else, there's a portal beyond a pillar to the afterlife as well.'

'To trust your fate to essentially a roulette…' She can't see much of the cave from so low, and she's glad she can't. 'Did you cross? Or wake up there?'

'Wake up,' Cynthia replies. 'But I wonder if it matters.' She straightens and looks towards the cave herself. 'I think I must face this cave either way. But you can still go back. Perhaps head to Sandgem Town. Professor Rowan must be worried.'

Can she? She wondered. Had she misunderstood the papers in Canalave Library or was Cynthia simply privy to more? But she goes. Back across the spring, through the grass where only the ghosts and a chiming chimecho lurk, and onto the only path, winding through trees.

There's route 214 and it's awash with colour like she hasn't seen since before the Distortion World. Route 214… Veilstone City is nearest, and there she can heal her team and fly with Togekiss.

It's not a long walk, at least.


	3. 3

**dawns and skullbones**  
3.

Professor Rowan's not the tactile type. He sends her off on her journey without so much as a handshake after all, and that was after she rescued his briefcase too (and borrowed the Chimchar inside of it, but Chimchar was her partner now anyway).

When she arrives at Sandgem Town, clothes stiff but dry, Professor Rowan knocks her right off Togekiss. 'Where have you been, child,' he scolds. 'You all but vanished off the map, but with Cynthia missing as well, the authorities haven't had time for a wayward trainer.' He mumbles the last part, as though he's quoting someone as opposed to believing it himself. But it's hard to tell, when he calls even his own assistant a child who never sits still.

But that's just his form of endearment. And this sudden tackle hug must be his worry.

'Even Barry had no idea where you'd gone! Oh dear, he must be at Lake Valour by now.'

Dawn can't help but laugh at that. Because Lake Valour hadn't been too far from Sendoff Springs and she could have easily picked him up along the way, if she'd known.

She doesn't even know how long she and Cynthia have been "missing" for. Not that it matters right now.

'Cynthia's in Turnback Cave,' she says, instead. That's most important: where Cynthia is and why she can't move. 'At Sendoff Springs.'

'Turnback Cave?' Professor Rowan repeats slowly. Of course he knows what that means. 'Then… we have no choice but to hope for her safety.' He got up slowly, and gave Togekiss an absentminded rub under the chin. 'How did she get there?'

'Thrown out of the Distortion World,' Dawn replies. 'I wound up on the grass on the other side of the springs.'

'The mysterious fourth lake of Sinnoh,' Professor Rowan sighed. 'Of all the places for there to exist a connection with the Distortion World… But I suppose it makes sense. It's supposed to be linked to the Afterlife, as well, after all. Unlike the Pokemon Tower in Kanto that remains just a burial place for the dead, Sendoff Springs is a place where they can cross over.'

He stares at her again. She looks fine though, she thinks. She checked herself in a mirror at the Pokemon Centre, and in her compact as they'd flown.

He doesn't seem reassured though. 'I'll examine your pokemon,' he says. 'Were any out of their poke-balls at Sendoff Springs?'

'Lumineon,' Dawn replies, handing her pouch over. 'Glaceon was the only other one still conscious.'

Professor Rowan's almost inside his private lab before she recalls. 'Ah, the Dusk Ball has Giratina.'

He gapes at her. And she pats herself on the back, because few things manage to surprise Professor Rowan (and they're usually not good things, either). 'Giratina,' he echoes. 'As in: the Distortion Pokemon?'

'Well, it was the only way to reason with it,' she replies. And since Cynthia had been busy reasoning with Cyrus from Team Galactic…


	4. 4

**dawns and skullbones**  
4.

She goes and gets a late lunch while Professor Rowan has her pokemon, and Lucas knocks her flat when she gets back.

That's more like Barry, but Barry's probably still flying from Lake Valour. Still, Lucas gives her a strong hug, before pulling back to yell "where have you been!" in her face.

So Professor Rowan didn't tell him anything.

She gives an abridged version herself, as they climb the stairs. There's probably a reason why Professor Rowan didn't call the International Police as soon as he discovered with Sinnoh's Champion was. And Lucas is nice and a friend and all, but its Professor Rowan's job to decide if he wants to involve him or not.

She kind of can't _not_ involve Professor Rowan. Or her own mother.

Which'll be her next stop, as soon as she's got her pokemon back.

…maybe she should have done that first. Assuming her mother will let her out of her sight again.

Except Professor Rowan's grim face greets them, and she wonders if it's more of a case of him not letting her out of his sight.

He moves aside soundlessly though, so she goes in. Luminion is in a tank, resting near the bottom. Luminion who was recently healed, and had only a short swim before that. Granted, it was a swim in Sendoff Springs…

Dawn sighs. 'So we lost that bet, huh.'

'I'm sorry,' said the professor.

'Don't be.' She shakes her head. 'I'm the one who called her out. I should've just swum over myself.'

'To try and cross a lake on your own?' Lucas exclaimed. 'That's suicide!'

Dawn touches the glass gently, where Luminion's fin rests. 'Would Turnback Cave help?' Maybe they should have stayed with Cynthia after all.

'Maybe,' the Professor admits. 'But it's risky. And the team you have with you isn't the best at traversing caves.'

'Can I risk swapping them out, though? They might have been in their poke-balls and unconscious, but does it matter?'

Lucas stares at them. 'Turnback Cave? You mean you're talking about _Sendoff_ Springs?'

…well, he was a leading professor's research assistant.

'Why the hell were you taking a swim _there_? Why were you even there in the first place? And where even is it?'

'Spring Path comes out somewhere between Veilstone City and Lake Valour,' Dawn replies tiredly, forehead on the glass. It's too cold, though. Not very comforting. 'That's where the Distortion World threw us out… except for Cyrus. Dunno where he disappeared to.'

'So Cynthia was at Sendoff Springs, too,' Lucas surmises.

'She's at Turnback Cave now,' Professor Rowan adds. It was probably too late to stop him, anyway. Or maybe it didn't matter.

'Oh.' He falls quiet – then piques up again. 'Then…'

'If I hurry, I stand a better chance,' she says. She's trying to think logically; really, she is. But it makes her feel chilled inside. 'Cynthia will have eliminated some rooms already.'

'But… it's been hours!' Lucas protests.

Is that too long?


	5. 5

**dawns and skullbones**  
5.

She goes home, first. She has to. She can't leave again without seeing her mother… and if she does leave before Barry catches up, he'll follow her all the way into Turnback Cave and then there'll be twenty-one of them (counting all the pokemon). That might work to their advantage, with the number of rooms they might have to get through, but did it really work that way? Was it so simple that they could use dig or an escape rope to start over before they looked into one too many rooms? Did the counter even restart?

Three pillars and thirty rooms – thirty chances – to find them in, but the true number of rooms is immeasurable. Will it work if they catch up to Cynthia, if she's marked the rooms she's already tried, if they divide and conquer? Is there a way to work the system, or will they have to literally stumble upon their salvation… or their doom?

She voices none of this out loud. Instead, she follows Lucas down the road to Twinleaf Town while Professor Rowan checks over the rest of her pokemon. She can withdraw some from the PC, but she doesn't. Whatever mess she's gotten herself into, she doesn't want the rest of her pokemon involved.

So Lucas and his Clefable are on guard instead, and there's not a rustle in the grass as they cross. They're all weak digimon around Twinleaf, anyway. The mere sight of a fully evolved pokemon is enough to make them run and hide.

It's also enough to make the kids come out squealing, but Lucas is happy enough to entertain them and Clefable's a born performer. That and they're tactful enough to know she wants some alone-time with her mother, and they leave her to it.

She promises to bring some of her mother's cooking back, because there's no way her mother hasn't got leftovers waiting for her… or something fresh on the stove. And she's right. She can smell the poffins cooking as she walks up the driveway.

And motherly instincts must be at work too, because her mother meets her at the door.

This hug is expected, and just as warm as it's always been. She can't help but let out a happy sigh as she snuggles into the embrace.

She's been so cold, otherwise, and she'd only realised with the tank… and now…

'You're safe,' her mother murmurs into her hair.

Kind of. Not really. But she doesn't say either of those out loud.

She doesn't say it out loud, so maybe the illusion will last a little longer… at least until she can dispel it.

…if she can. There's an immeasurable number of rooms in Turnback Cave, and she gets only thirty to find three pillars and the way out as well. And then there's Cynthia too.

Should she even have bothered coming back?


	6. 6

**dawns and skullbones**  
6.

In the end, she doesn't tell her mother much of anything. Just explains that there are a lot of loose ends that need wrapping up and she needs to go for a while so she's just dropping in, and takes poffins and two bento boxes with her when she leaves.

Lucas, of course, gets half the poffins and one of the bento boxes. Dawn feeds some to Luminion. Lucas and Professor Rowan are talking downstairs. Barry's called to say he's almost there.

And then he is, shouting and shaking her like he can shake out the water from Sendoff Springs and the miasma of the Distortion World. 'It's like – you had to catch Giratina! Was it mad? Is that why it tossed you two there?'

She hasn't thought about the why, honestly. Maybe it's the only place the portal can open without tearing the space-time fabric. Or maybe Barry's right and Giratina is mad.

Well, Giratina has to tag along with the rest of them anyway, otherwise the world might wind up short one Legendary pokemon. Professor Rowan was too worried to be concerned about that. He was a good Professor… or a bad Professor or good human being (it all depended on the perspective).

Barry grumbles some more, as though the power of words is enough to win this battle. Lucas is more practical, fetching Dawn's poke-balls while she recalls the fading Lumineon from its tank. Togekiss will have to fly all the way back to Veilstone City, and Lumineon survive the swim across Sendoff Springs to get her to Turnback Cave. But all her pokemon are affected, Professor Rowan concludes. Just not as bad as Lumineon.

'It's still dangerous,' Lucas mutters, 'flying back on Togekiss. What if she flags? You could fall out of mid-air.'

'Togekiss has more common sense than that,' Dawn points out. But he's right, in a sense. Togekiss is –

No, she's not the only flier currently on her team. '…there's Giratina.'

'Flying to Turnback Cave on Giratina?!' Barry exclaims. 'That's suicide.'

'We don't know Giratina's reaction to being captured,' Professor Rowan counters, but for a Legendary pokemon to be caught in a dusk ball… Well, I think it was his way of showing he agreed with Dawn's words.'

And she hasn't called him out since, because a town isn't really the best place if Giratina does go on a rampage, and Giratina had needed healing before that.

'Spring Path is quiet,' she muses aloud. 'Maybe there.' Maybe… because it's suddenly a scary thought. What if Barry is right? What if Giratina is angry at being captured?

Though that's laughable too, because if Legendries could be caught in the sort of balls brought from the Veilstone Department Store, there'd be a lot more of them under trainers. Except there aren't. Even Cynthia's only got a pseudo-legendary at best: her Garchomp.

But if she's going to get answers, she needs Giratina as well as Turnback Cave. And she owes to him for capturing him.


	7. 7

**dawns and skullbones**  
7.

Leaving is hard. Suddenly, nobody seems to want to let her go and, in the end, only Professor Rowan does – but only after making the boys swear on Arceus that they won't follow her down Spring Path.

She has permission to "borrow" Lucas' Alakazam and have it freeze the pair of boys in their tracks if it comes to that. Though sleight of hand isn't exactly one of her strong points.

Maybe reason can rule their hearts, after all. Though she gets why they don't want to let her go alone, and it's comforting to have them there, flying beside her on Staraptor and Honchkrow. And when Togekiss does flag an hour outside of Veilstone, Lucas takes Dawn's bag and pokemon, and Barry hauls her up onto Staraptor.

Everything looks painfully ordinary through the healing machine at the Pokemon Centre, and they don't ask for more. They set off towards Lake Valour instead, until Dawn sees the entrance of Spring Path through the trees and stops them.

The boys stare blankly at the spot. They, apparently, can't see anything at all.

But she puts her foot down. 'We're here,' she says. 'I'm sorry, but I have to go now.'

They meander, anyway. Ask if they can meet Giratina, and she promises to let them when she returns if things go well (and aren't there many ifs with that statement!). Then pull out a tent they plan to share and struggle to set it up at the mouth of Spring Path.

'Thirty rooms won't take that long,' Barry says cheerfully, when she protests. 'We'll be waiting.'

But that contradicts their hope that Cynthia's still searching, doesn't it? Because otherwise the news would have blared her re-emergence.

Unless she's hiding, but what reason does she have to hide?

'We'll be waiting,' Lucas says, a little more quietly, and pushes something into her hands. Escape Rope.

Who knows if that'll work, but if she needs it, she's willing to try.

And Barry's holding something out too. A poke-ball. 'Empoleon,' he explains. 'Your Lumineon looks pretty terrible… uuh, no offence.'

She doesn't want to take Empoleon. That's too cruel. Too risky. But Barry won't take "no" for answer. Only shoves the poke-ball into her hands and shoves her into the trees.

It's pure luck on his part that she stumbles onto the path and not into a trunk.

But she is grateful. And though it could, far too easily, wind up a waste, she's glad they believe in her enough to wait.

Maybe she should have waited for Cynthia, too. Or maybe Cynthia hadn't known whether she'd escaped the cave's pull or not and sent her to Professor Rowan just in case.

It doesn't matter anymore. She's back now. She walks deeper into Spring Path until she can't see Barry and Lucas anymore.

And then, quickly and before she can chicken out, she calls out Giratina.


	8. 8

**dawns and skullbones**  
8.

Giratina growls.

Dawn wishes pokemon could communicate with words instead, but very few in the world do and they're the stuff of legends. And very few humans have the means of understands the language they share: the language that sounds so different to human ears… and yet a pokemon has little trouble communicating with another pokemon. It's just when talking to humans that they must resort to other means.

Giratina growls. The breeze whips through Spring Path – and that's all that happens. Giratina does not attack, nor does he try to immediately fly out of reach. He only stays there, curled on the path, and growls and waits.

Perhaps those growls are the only words he can make.

So she talks instead. Words she's not sure Giratina understands but she thinks he does. He'd stopped attacking, by the end. He's not attacking now. They've come to some kind of understanding, here. And by not attacking again, Giratina is making that clear.

So now it's her turn. 'What do you want to do, from here?' she asks. 'I'm about to go back to Spring path, and Turnback Cave. I hear there's a portal to the Distortion World in there, if you want to return. Or you can fly wherever you like, from here.' And maybe it's selfish, but Giratina is still a pokemon she's caught and, for that, she's attached. 'Or you can come with us. We'll be happy to have you. You should do what you wish.'

She explains a little more, about Turnback Cave and all they know about it, and the curse that clings to their bodies and the risk that it clings to Giratina as well. She explains and Giratina does little more but growl in between, until she's done.

And then they stand on Spring Path, together, in silence again.

Finally, Giratina bows his head and turns, low enough that she can climb onto his back if she wishes. She does, because he invites her. They fly the rest of the way to the southern shore of Sendoff Springs.

And then he lets her off and steps into the water, sending ripples with his feet.

She wonders if it's a rite of passage too, to swim across the lake instead of fly. She releases Lumineon, who looks so frail she wonders if Barry wasn't right, after all, in handing Empoleon to her despite the risk it contains.

Giratina buts her back when she tries to step in with Empoleon. She considers herself, then realises. She has four other poke-balls.

She releases them. Glaceon and Togekiss. Infernape and Roserade. Infernape in particular cringes at the water but Giratina gently knocks them all in, and so they swim. Togekiss glides like a duck. The rest cling to Empoleon. And Empoleon looks so loaded that Dawn clings to Giratina instead, to guide her along the deep lake.

Slowly, they traverse the fog-covered fourth mysterious lake of the Sinnoh region, and climb out to the mouth of Turnback Cave.


	9. 9

**dawns and skullbones  
** 9.

Turnback Cave swallows them up: the entourage of one human and seven pokemon. Technically, a trainer's not even supposed to have seven pokemon on hand, but Empoleon's not hers. It's just one of the many loopholes that can be exploited.

There's also the current Champion of Kanto, whose pikachu hates getting into its poke-ball and so whenever he's in an official match with six pokemon but not using his pikachu in the line-up, he's technically carrying seven. But there aren't many cases like theirs.

In any case, no-one's really going to enforce the rules in Turnback Cave. Her electronics aren't working: her phone or her poke-dex. She supposes the poke-balls won't work either, but she doesn't exactly need them to work.

She hopes her medicines will still work. Or, rather, the medicines Professor Rowan had outfitted her with, since she'd been all out. She can do without technology in a cave, but if there's anything to battle, she can't do without the medicines.

Especially since they can't go back without finding the pillars first, or so the records tell.

The mouth of the cave has closed up behind them. Infernape's glowing mane lights the way and, for the moment, none of them move. Giratina's eyes glint from the front… at least, in this moment where they still have their bearings. But when they move deeper into the cave and lose track of where the entrance once was, it won't matter what is front or behind unless they've marked their way.

If the technology that underpins the Escape Rope won't help them, then they can only use it as a rope without the enhancements. But it's too short to be anything but a marker.

It can do for a marker, assuming the entrance can't move. She hopes not. Or she hopes they'll find the entrance through some other means, when the time comes.

But, for now, they don't need the entrance: they need the pillars, further in.

And the wall where the entrance once stood says the same thing.

"...Past three pillars...," she reads aloud, "to the sleeping... ...before 30 is surpassed..."

There are words missing everywhere, but the message is clear enough. 'Right, three pillars.' The records at Canalave assume the thirty to be rooms in the cave: doorways and walls.

Giratina sets off. They all follow after him: a mess of misshapen paws on the cave floors. They pass one room and one pillar, then another room with another and then a third.

And at the fourth, they stop. There's an altar there, where the floor dips and then climbs back up again. There are stairs, coming from all sides: down, and then up.

There's something on the altar. And something around the altar, as well. The air shimmers: like it's unsteady, like it's shaking.

Giratina walks there: down the stairs, and up the stairs.

The rest of them follow silently.


	10. 10

**dawns and skullbones**  
10.

The air ripples when they pass through it, and on the other side is the distortion world. Giratina continues walking still, and they follow.

Though Dawn wonders why they follow. This is Giratina's home and his motives may be that straight-forward. But when she slows, Giratina waits.

She starts walking again. Giratina continues on with his entourage until he reaches his destination.

It looks no different to the rest of the place, awash with Infernape's flames, except the scars of battle there.

'We battled here,' she surmised.

Giratina inclined his head. Agreement. No, he was gesturing at someone.

Someone, rather. Cyrus. 'You've… been here all this time?' she wonders. It's a lonely place to have been trapped in.

He smiles. Surprisingly, he looks rather content at his predicament. 'You make it sound like a bad thing.' he says. 'I did wish for a world without strife, and here, I have it, and the price I have paid is the world itself. It seemed fitting enough…' He looks at the gathering of pokemon, and the human who follows them. 'And yet you all are here.'

'Long story, that.' She doesn't particularly want to share: how Giratina had saved them from a fate of wandering endlessly within Turnback Cave, not knowing whether the timers on their lives had expired or would expire or if they'd find salvation first. Or how they haven't found Cynthia and how that can mean everything or nothing at all. Or how it felt, standing on the shore of Sendoff Springs and wondering if their fates had already been decided for them, because they'd been chasing him…

He smiles, again. 'You're a kind girl. It's okay. I've no reason to fight, now. This world is enough for me… Unless Giratina would wish me out of it?'

Giratina simply settles somewhere and lets them talk.

'You gave me a Master Ball,' Dawn comments.

'I did,' Cyrus agrees. 'Is that what you used to capture Giratina?'

'No. I used a Dusk Ball.'

He laughs. 'Compassionate, indeed. You despise how it unfairly catches whatever it strikes, do you not? And yet it is humans like ourselves who have made these things.'

'Not like ourselves,' Dawn contradicts. 'Not like me. Not like you.'

'I suppose you are right.' He looks away a moment, then he smiles. 'How do you like it? My world?'

'It is not a world you created,' Dawn replies. 'Is that not what you promised Cynthia and I?'

'I suppose,' Cyrus consents, 'but in an empty world, passion is quickly lost. I have come to like this spiritless, lonely world. But… perhaps I feel a little lonely. Yes.'

'I'm sure we'll be back to visit.' And she's not quite sure how she feels about that, but Cyrus is at least a simpler matter, if he's given up on eradicating spirit and heart from this world.

Giratina stands. They've done what they need to do. Almost.

Or maybe this is simply her selfish desire, her test. '…have you seen Cynthia since?'

'No,' he shakes his head, 'no-one at all.'


	11. 11

**dawns and skullbones**  
11.

They emerge in Turnback Cave, where they'd left. The air still shimmers: the doorway to the Distortion World that lays beyond.

They can see what's on the altar now, though. A strange glowing old: cold as Dawn reaches out to touch it. Colder still when everything around her changes.

Giratina arches. He's the largest and most magnificent and their guide, so of course she notices him first. His wings flare out. His body curves and his legs shrink so they're more artefact than limb.

It's how he looked in the Distortion World. When they'd first fought. And, now, outside the Distortion World where he looked more like a land-dweller before.

And then she looks more closely, and realises it's not only Giratina who has changed. Infernape's flame glows purple instead of red, and Empoleon's dark fins are likewise changed. Togekiss' pearly skin has turned an ashen grey but she trills happily enough. Glaceon, too, has replaced white with grey and blue with purple and Roserade's green is dark and trembles like air – the portal – that surrounds them. And Lumineon's blue fins are purple too: a dark fluttery purple like Infernape's flame.

When she puts the orb in her bag, they settle back into their normal forms. But at least they're energetic now, instead of meekly following. They've passed the trial posed to them, then – thanks to Giratina.

She breathes a sigh of relief, but then the walls of Turnback Cave seem to shrink in and she realises that it might not be over, after all. They'd come out at Sendoff Springs last time, and that had been enough to mark them. Here, they'd left Turnback Cave and returned to the same spot they'd left. Did that mean the curse began anew? Or were they cut free of it?

And what of the orb? What was that, that had changed all her pokemon (and Empoleon) so?

 _I'm sorry, Barry. I don't know what I've done to your Empoleon._

'What now?' she wonders aloud. If they need to keep coming back here, they can manage with Giratina guiding them through and she can't be more thankful for it. But she's suddenly drained. It's a spiral that will never end and what of every other poor unfortunate soul that doesn't have a giratina guiding them?

What of Cynthia?

Giratina moves on that thought, pass empty rooms with dark sloping walls until he stops. Her pokemon stop far earlier.

She walks forward, because she lacks the senses that pokemon have. But she guesses before she sees, because few things would stop her pokemon in their tracks.

She's right. Poor Cynthia and her pokemon, curled around each other, wasting away in this empty maze of rooms in a cave because they couldn't find the pillars in time. It's sad. It's cruel. And the people of Sinnoh will never be able to say farewell because she can't drag them all out if even Giratina won't get close.

But she can't just leave them, either.


	12. 12

**dawns and skullbones**  
12.

In the end, she carried just a tooth and the ashes back. Professor Rowan promised to pass them on to the police later, so they can sort out identification and paperwork and things.

He took the Griseous Orb as well, to study.

Dawn was tired. She just wanted to go home and sleep. But she can't. Not yet. She needs to make sure they'll be okay, first. That's more important. The most important.

Barry and Lucas hover close. So do some of her pokemon. Professor Rowan has the rest, but Glaceon nips at Lucas' Honchcrow and they chase each other around the lounge. They look rather cute, actually. Lucas is smiling as he watches.

Dawn is staring out the window, instead.

There's not much to see in Sandgem Town but it's civilisation, and it's so close to home.

Everything's silent, suddenly. She turns back around. Lucas and Barry are both looking pale. 'What is it?'

'You looked like a ghost,' Barry says hoarsely, 'just for a moment.'

'And your Glaceon…' Lucas glances back. 'She's normal now, but she was –'

'Grey?' she asks. 'It happened when I touched the orb as well.' She hadn't noticed anything about herself, but it wasn't as though she'd had a mirror handy.

Neither Barry nor Lucas quite know what to say to that. So they watch Glaceon and Honchcrow play, and wait.

Eventually, Professor Rowan comes out and the news isn't great, though it's not bad either.

It's about what they expect. Turnback Cave isn't so willing to let them go, but at least it gives them this reprieve. 'I can't say for sure how long,' Professor Rowan says. 'Your pokemon are as lively as ever and that's the main thing. And, this time, you all swam in Sendoff Springs so you'll all feel the effects. You'll know earlier.'

They say nothing for a moment. It's not really comforting: the chilling truth, but at least it's not absolute. They can do something about it. It's like a cancer they can force into remission with regular visits to Turnback Cave and she's not ready to pay the price for not doing so just yet. So their lives are going to move a little slower, be stretched a little more thinly…

That's not going to stop them, though. They've got a badge from Sunnyshore to still win. And then… the Elite Four.'

'What are you thinking about?' Barry asks.

'The Elite Four,' she replies.

He laughs: quick and bubbly. 'Not if I get there first.'

Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. At least they won't have to keep on taking detours because of Team Galactic… unless they try to make a stand without Cyrus. That was part of Cynthia's role, but they've been swept along as well.

Well, if it comes to that, they can finish off the job.

'And maybe take notes on Turnback Cave?' Lucas offers. 'I mean, with Giratina you've got a goldmine of information there…'

'Sure.' It can give them something back.


End file.
